New SARS-like virus is a ‘threat to the entire world’

A new SARS-like virus recently found in humans is “a threat to the entire world,” according to the director-general of the United Nations’ World Health Organization.

The so-called novel coronavirus “is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself,” Margaret Chan said Monday in her closing remarks at the 66th World Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

The world needs to pull together its resources to properly tackle the virus which, Chan said, is her “greatest concern” at present.

“We understand too little about this virus when viewed against the magnitude of its potential threat,” she said, and more information is needed “quickly” and “urgently.”

“We do not know where the virus hides in nature. We do not know how people are getting infected. Until we answer these questions, we are empty-handed when it comes to prevention. These are alarm bells. And we must respond,” she said.

<snip>

The virus had infected 44 people worldwide as of last week, most of them in the Middle East, according to the World Health Organization’s most recent update Thursday. Half of them have died.